Mazmur 89:26-34

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ¹  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ² 

89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, ³ 

the most exalted of the earth’s kings.

89:28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,

and my covenant with him is secure. ⁴ 

89:29 I will give him an eternal dynasty, ⁵ 

and make his throne as enduring as the skies above. ⁶ 

89:30 If his sons reject my law

and disobey my regulations,

89:31 if they break ⁷  my rules

and do not keep my commandments,

89:32 I will punish their rebellion by beating them with a club, ⁸ 

their sin by inflicting them with bruises. ⁹ 

89:33 But I will not remove ¹⁰  my loyal love from him,

nor be unfaithful to my promise. ¹¹ 

89:34 I will not break ¹²  my covenant

or go back on what I promised. ¹³ 

[89:26]  ¹ sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[89:26]  ² tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[89:27]  ³ sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.

[89:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “forever I will keep for him my loyal love and will make my covenant secure for him.”

[89:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I will set in place forever his offspring.”

[89:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “and his throne like the days of the heavens.”

[89:31]  ⁷ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will punish with a club their rebellion.”

[89:32]  sn Despite the harsh image of beating…with a club, the language reflects a father-son relationship (see v. 30; 2 Sam 7:14). According to Proverbs, a שֵׁבֶט (shevet, “club”) was sometimes utilized to administer corporal punishment to rebellious children (see Prov 13:24; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15).

[89:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “with blows their sin.”

[89:33]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “break”; “make ineffectual.” Some prefer to emend אָפִיר (’afir; the Hiphil of פָּרַר, parar, “to break”) to אָסִיר (’asir; the Hiphil of סוּר, sur, “to turn aside”), a verb that appears in 2 Sam 7:15.

[89:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and I will not deal falsely with my faithfulness.”

[89:34]  ¹² tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:34]  ¹³ tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”